English artist Damien Hirst has split with New York-based Gagosian Gallery after 17 years of representation. “Larry Gagosian and Damien have reached an amicable decision to part company,” said Damien Hirst’s company Science Ltd.  With a net worth of more than $346 million according to The Sunday Times rich list, Hirst has been called the richest artist in the world. Likewise, Gagosian Gallery is the richest gallery in the world, valued at $925 million according to Forbes magazine. White Cube gallery in London will continue to represent Hirst.

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Simon de Pury and collector Robert Tomei discuss their obsession with design as a harbinger of the contemporary market: “Collecting design is quite a new phenomenon,” he says. “In the past, collectors rarely attempted to buy great design as well as great art. Robert, though, is passionate about both, but he doesn’t take himself seriously. His collecting is all done in a spirit of fun, with a genuine interest and curiosity”, says de Pury. Tomei began by collecting video installations form the 90s and owns work by Maarten Baas, Piet Hein Eek, Sebastian Brajkovic, Rolf Sachs, Olafur Eliasson and Elmgreen & Dragset, among others. (more…)

Olafur Eliasson, The Volcano Series (2012). All images courtesy Tanya Bonakdar.

Currently on view through December 22 at Tanya Bonakdar Gallery is Volcanoes and Shelters, an exhibition of new photographs and installations by Olafur Eliasson, who is best known for work that merges art, science, and natural phenomena to create multisensory experiences. The exhibition at Tanya Bonakdar, however, focuses on Eliasson’s straightforward collection of photographs of the Icelandic landscape.

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Jessica Chastain has participated in work by four artists for W magazine: George Condo, Rineke Dijkstra, Chantal Joffe and Mickalene Thomas. Each made a work using Chastain as part of the piece, where she posed for a photograph or a painted portrait; in the case of George Condo, she inspired a work that is neither: “I wanted Jessica to become part of the painting and then appear to come off it, as if she were breaking free and leaving behind an empty space,” he said. (more…)

Thomas Hart Benton’s 10-panel mural, “America Today”, is being donated to the Met by AXA Equitable Insurance Company, which has owned it for the past 30 years. The mural is one of Benton’s best examples of a snapshot of American diversity, just prior to the Great Depression. It became the catalyst for the WPA program in the 1930s because it was so well-received. The work will go on view at the Breuer building in 2015, when the Met takes over the Whitney’s current space under and eight-year agreement.  (more…)

After conducting its first physical inventory in roughly a century, the city realized that approximately 15% of its collection, or 5,176 artworks, were missing. This number includes 1,400 unique objects with unknown whereabouts from the collection, which is spread over 500 locations and is valued in total at €100 million. Among the works that are unaccounted for is a Le Corbusier painting which was purchased for 80,000 Swiss francs; however according to the city’s statement, the remainder of the missing objects had only been insured at a value of 1 million Swiss francs. (more…)

Paula Cooper, 74, discusses why she thinks the art world has become too homogeneous and ruminates that perhaps she’ll leave Chelsea. The first gallerist to open a space in Soho and one of the first to move to Chelsea in the 90s, she has seen major changes in her 40+ years in the business, but continues to draw crowds and run her gallery’s program with a youthful energy. (more…)

Guillermo Kuitca in front of his work at The Drawing Center, photo by H. Hannig for ArtObserved

Argentinian painter Guillermo Kuitca has, for the past several decades, continued to explore the visual aesthetic of organization, the varied architectural and illustrative lines at the heart of the maps, floor plans and aerial views, abstracting these images into his own personal artistic language.  The record becomes a personal interpretation, and vice versa.

Guillermo Kuitca at The Drawing Center photo by Cathy Carver

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With soaring prices for certain contemporary and modern artists, some say there are signs of a bubble that is about to burst, such as the fact that people are attracted to high prices and “trophy” art. Some say it is similar to “tulipomania” in 17th century Holland, whereby the insiders have already purchased, so the market expands to newer, international audiences to continue growth. One [anonymous] advisor put it like this:  “The market has to come down—because it has to. They don’t call it a market because it only goes up. You call that ‘magic.’” Others such as Mary Boone and Sean Kelly, question whether the frenzy at the top of the market is truly an indicator of a bubble. Kelly says, “Every time you thought the world was ending, this market has confounded that prediction.”  (more…)

The student occupiers at their press conference Monday, December 10th at noon. Photo by Phoebe Pundyk for Art Observed.

The eleven students who have been occupying the Cooper Union clock tower exited at noon yesterday from the Peter Cooper Suite. Sleeping bags in tow, the students (many of whom wore homemade t-shirts with “FREE” scrawled across them) were greeted with cheers. Although none of their original demands were met by the administration, the group felt it was time to end the lock-in: that they had made their point and that their work would be better carried on from the ground. They were accompanied by their dean, who handed each student a single red rose. This is just the beginning of a long road to resolution.

Signs accumulated at the gate in Cooper Square directly below the windows of the lock-in. Photo by Jennifer Lindblad for Art Observed.

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“The End of Fun”, an exhibition by Jake and Dinos Chapman at the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, contains both Nazi and religious imagery, which may have violated Russia’s laws regarding extremism. (Earlier this year the members of the punk band Pussy Riot were jailed for such an offense). The Hermitage staff explained the conceptual ideas behind the work in the [aptly titled] exhibition to prosecutors, but no details yet on whether or not they will pursue the case.
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 Ulla and Heiner Pietzsch have bequeathed their valuable collection of surrealist art to Berlin’s museums, provided that the work will forever be on display for the public to enjoy. However, the museums may have to reject the gift due to lack of space to install all of the works. The museums  initially planned to move Old Master paintings elsewhere but public opposition was too strong. The city may now have to set a firm timetable for its planned Old Masters museum near Museum Island, a UNESCO world heritage site that houses the Pergamon Altar and Nefertiti’s bust.

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Sean Kelly Gallery, Los Carpinteros, Kosmaj Toy (2012).

All images by A.M. Ekstrand for ArtObserved, on location at Art Basel Miami Beach Fair.

Art Basel returned once again in Miami Beach this past week for the 11th annual Art Basel Miami Beach Fair. Featuring over 300 galleries representing 36 countries around the world, the show has exhibited marked growth from last year’s event, with well over 2,000 artists flocking to exhibit at what has become the internationally-renowned closing party for the world art market each year.  It is of course always an irony that tens of thousands will fly down for the events and parties, with many of them never visiting the vast aggregation of what it said to be roughly $1.5 billion worth of art in one (large) room, a collection that few museums in the world could compete with.   Below is a selection of some of the works we thought to be notable from the fair.

Helly Nahmad Gallery, Mark Rothko No. 1 (1957) and Alexander Calder, installation view

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Los Carpinteros  Güiro – Pop up bar on the Beach – All photos in this post by Art Observed

The events surrounding Art Basel Miami Beach have grown noticeably in the past few years, thankfully so has the pixel count in the latest issue cell phone cameras of our Art Observed staff on site (though some photos below seem to belie this capability). Below is a selection of some of the people, art, cars-as-art, parties and events we tweeted and instagrammed live during the week @ArtObserved, in case you missed it.

Azealia Banks at the Standard Hotel for Terrywood on Friday Night

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Exterior View, Wolfsonian FIU. All photos by A. M. Ekstrand for ArtObserved

On Friday, December 7th, 2012, the Wolfsonian Museum at FIU held a reception for its shows on view:  “Postcards of the Wiener Werkstätte: Selections from the Leonard A. Lauder Collection”,  “Esther Shalev-Gerz: Describing Labor” and “Art and Design in the Modern Age: Selections from the Wolfsonian Collection”. The exterior of the Mediterranean-revival style building recently underwent conservation and its dramatically lit 1926 cast stone façade welcomed invited guests.

Maria Likarz Fashion 1911 (more…)

Tracey Emin, Self Portrait with my Eyes Closed (2012), Courtesy of White Cube Gallery

Tracey Emin’s work inaugurated the new White Cube space in São Paulo, Brazil on December 1st, 2012 with her show I Don’t Believe in Love but I Believe in You.

Her recent works seem to embody a coming of age, perhaps even paralleling the growth of the gallery itself. The new pieces appear to have a new found calm and tranquility beneath her common narratives of love and sex. The exhibition has a quiet resonance that suggests the fruition of a lifetime’s work, setting the tone of the new venture.

Tracey Emin,  The Beginning of Me (2012), Courtesy of White Cube Gallery

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Terry Richardson and Pharrell Williams at OHWOW It Ain’t Fair 2012 photo by Aviva for Art Observed

On December 7th, 2012, at 743 Washington Avenue (on the Miami Beach side and not across the bay in the design district) OHWOW inaugurated the fifth and last edition of It Ain’t Fair (IAF), a venue for avant-garde art across all media. It began in 2008 in Miami, concurrent with the main fair, as another way to view work by emerging artists such as Tauba Auerbach, Ashley Bickerton, Cyprien Gaillard, Clayton Patterson and others.

Atmosphere at OHWOW It Aint Fair Miami 2012, all photos by E. Schwartzberg for ArtObserved unless otherwise noted

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Yue Minjun, Great Joy (1993). All images courtesy of Cartier Foundation.

On view through March 17 at the Fondation Cartier in Paris is an exhibition of the emblematic work of Yue Minjun. Appropriately titled “L’ombre du fou rire (The shadow of crazy laughter),” the show features Minjun’s large-scale paintings easily identified by caricatured self-portraits frozen in laughter that have rapidly gained international popularity in recent years.

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Collectors seeking iconic works at the Old Masters sales in London this week have led to uneven results: at Sotheby’s a bidder paid $47.9 million for “Head of a Young Apostle,” by Raphael; at Christie’s, only 29 out of 54 lots sold, bringing in $18.6 million, just over low estimate. “The name is not enough. It has to be a top example by an important master,” said Jonathan Green of the Richard Green Gallery in London. Additional speculation is that international, non-Western buyers are not interested in the historical subject matter from a cultural standpoint. (more…)

The Pompidou has hired Sylvia Chivaratanond as its first adjunct curator in New York. The move is part of the museum’s effort to promote a current knowledge of the contemporary art scene among its Paris curators. She has organized shows for major US institutions and is married to Philippe Vergne, director of the Dia Art Foundation.

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Danh Vo – We The People (detail) – Gallery Chantal Crousel, all photos by G. Hansen for ArtObserved

Copper – tarnished, polished, battered, and even mailed FedEx packages (as with Walead Beshty’s piece at Regen Projects) seemed to make an appearance in many places at Art Basel Miami Beach this year. One amazing example was Danh Vo’s curving, paneled “We The People” at Galerie Chantal Crousel, also perhaps the largest copper piece at the show.

Daniel Buren – Bortolami Gallery

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New Art Dealers Alliance (NADA) Art Fair 2012, all photos by E. Simone for ArtObserved

The NADA fair is home to the some of the youngest, and most surprising artists and gallerists during Art Basel week, and is often described as a respite from the big-named, shiny, high-altitude atmosphere of the main fair. Dealers and collectors come to NADA searching out the new artists they think have the most potential, reveling in the discovery.

Keith Farquhar, Leslie Fritz Gallery (formerly Renwick Gallery) (more…)

In a replication of their performances at the MoMA in New York this past April, 2012, legendary German electro-pioneers Kraftwerk will perform eight classic albums in chronological order, with “spectacular 3D visualizations and effects” in Turbine Hall at London’s Tate Modern. At both museums the show was billed as “a chronological exploration of the group’s sonic and visual experiments.” Tate Modern’s title, slightly different than MoMA’s, is KRAFTWERK – THE CATALOGUE 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8,  and tickets go on sale December 12th.  (more…)

The man who spent nearly half a million dollars in the first hour of Art Basel Miami 2010 is missing from the action this year. Steven Cohen, founder of SAC Capital Advisors, may be taking a break due to recent legal trouble. Though Cohen has not been charged, his employee Mathew Martoma was accused of insider trading while working at SAC, and there are rumors the government will parlay their Martoma accusation into a charge against Cohen. Galleries to whom Cohen is especially loyal will miss him this year, and David Zwirner of the eponymous gallery told the New York Times, “We would absolutely hate to have him not active in the market, I can wholeheartedly say that. I think the art world is rooting for him. I’m rooting for him. I wish he were here right now.” (more…)